A Look at the Affordable and Impressive Viltrox AF 24mm f/1.8 Lens

24mm lenses are highly useful, as they are generally about the widest focal length you can use before wide angle distortion begins to become really obvious. 24mm f/1.4 lenses generally run around $1,000 or more, but Viltrox's AF 24mm f/1.8 comes in at less than half that, and this excellent video review takes a look at the image quality and performance you can expect from it. 

Turning Day to Night in Adobe Photoshop

Whether you couldn't shoot at the time you wanted or you just want to experiment with composites and heavier editing, this video will show you how to make a complete transformation.

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Show us the work YOU wanted to do

Welcome to the September installment of the Critique the Community! This month's critique theme is going to be "Passion Project," and we want to see your best photographs that come from a personal project.

How to Use a Powerful ND Filter for Long Exposure Landscape Photos

ND filters are a favorite tool of a lot of landscape photographers, useful for creating otherworldly long exposures that simply would not be possible otherwise. If you are new to using them, this helpful video tutorial will show you the process of using a 10-stop filter to create images. 

Luminar Neo Gives Us a Better Preview of What’s Coming

Skylum has been heavily teasing its new editor called Luminar Neo for many months, and today, I received another working preview of the app, available on Windows and Mac platforms. The new version seems to run a little faster than the last preview, and it is fully native to Apple silicon. I tested it on my 16" MacBook Pro with the M1 Max chipset. The release version will be faster, but Neo was editing at a good clip.

Is This Mid-Level 50mm Lens Worth the Extra Money?

You can spend under $100 for a 50mm lens with autofocus to well over $2,000 if you want the best of the best, with options at just about every price point in between. At $379, Viltrox's AF 50mm f/1.8 lens promises performance upgrades over the cheapest options without getting into the realm of ultra-expensive options, and this great video review takes a look at the performance and image quality you can expect from it. 

What Do You Lose When Compressing Images With JPEG?

We encounter and use JPEG files daily, but rarely do we give any thought to what the process entails. More importantly to us as photographers, what data do we lose when using this lossy image compression technique?

Check Out This Neat Trick for Creating Dramatic Light With a Shoot-Through Umbrella

No matter how many lighting modifiers you own, there is almost no setup that will not require some sort of customization, which is why a good understanding of the fundamentals of how light behaves and how to shape it is so important. This great video tutorial will show you a useful exercise for creating dramatic light using just a shoot-through umbrella and some v-flats, and even if you own more specialized modifiers, it is excellent practice in the problem-solving skills needed for mastering lighting.

Does Your Drone Need Filters?

Drones have quickly become a common and important tool for photographers and videographers in many niches. Filters have been a staple for camera users for decades, so could you benefit from filters for your drone?

Landscape Photography at an Extreme Focal Length

When it comes to landscape photography, the lens of choice is normally a wide angle focal length, such as a 24mm prime or 16-35mm zoom. Professionals often advocate exploring longer focal lengths by using something like a 70-200mm lens, but what about when you go even longer — much longer? This neat video explores creating landscape photos using an extra-long focal length. 

Is This the Year To Start Selling Your Photography?

When you are first starting with photography and developing your skills, it can be hard to know when and if to start pursuing selling your work as art prints. Is this the year you give it a try?

Behind the Scenes of Failed Photoshoots: Learning From Mistakes

It is a truism that you learn far more from your failure than you do your successes, and photography is no different. In this video, esteemed portrait photographer, Irene Rudnyk, goes through some of her failed shoots that never quite made the grade.

Helpful Tips for Editing Black and White Landscape Photos in Lightroom

When you think of landscape photos, you likely think of vibrant, eye-catching colors. And while that is a popular look for sure, a black and white image can be uniquely powerful. Lightroom contains some surprisingly versatile tools for creating black and white edits, and this helpful video tutorial will show you some great tips for getting the most out of those features. 

Are You Guilty of This Very Common Mistake When You Shoot New Places?

When you photograph a place for the first time, it's thrilling. You might have been planning it for months or years in advance, so when it finally comes to fruition, you can often get overexcited and forget some very important things once you start shooting. Here's one very common error that you should avoid.

9 Ways to Improve Your Photography Website

Nowadays, the majority of people turn to the internet when they are looking for services, including photography. As such, it is crucial that you understand and anticipate the way potential clients interact with websites and how to create the best experience to give you a better chance of turning them into paying customers. This helpful video tutorial will give you nine techniques to put you on the right track.

What Can You Do When You Forget Your Lens Filters?

Neutral density and polarizing filters are an essential part of most landscape photographers' kits, giving them the ability to better control long exposures, suppress reflections, and add contrast. So, what can you do when you forget your filters at home? This neat video explores photographing without them and how you can mimic their usage through some clever post-processing techniques. 

A Review of the Canon EOS R6 Mirrorless Camera

Canon's EOS R5 caught the attention of the photography world when it was announced, but alongside it came the EOS R6, which brought with it a lot of the same advanced features at a much more affordable price. If you do not need the 45 megapixels of the EOS R5, the EOS R6 may be the better choice, and this great video review takes a look at what you can expect from it.

How to Make $100,000 a Year With Your Photography

Whether you are a professional or a hobbyist, it’s safe to assume that you’d love to make at least $100,000 a year with your photography. Chances are, you’ve already heard that the key to reaching this number is to have multiple streams of income. In this video, Evan Ranft offers an alternate path for making six figures a year.

How This Photographer Shoots Light Halos Above UK Landmarks

A photographer with a passion for long exposures has shared an insight into how he creates UFO-style light halos within his landscape images. His posts containing his work have garnered hundreds of thousands of likes on the video-sharing site TikTok.

Which of These Affordable 85mm Lenses Is the Best?

Wide-aperture 85mm lenses are some of the most popular out there, a fact the seemingly never-ending arms race between manufacturers for the most bokeh-licious portrait lens can attest to. Not all of us want to spend over $2,000 on such a lens, though, and there are plenty of options that still offer good image quality at much more affordable prices. This excellent video comparison takes a look at two such options. 

Predictions for Professional Photography in 2022

There are lots of gear rumors and predictions that come out at the start of a year, so I thought I would chip in with my predictions for the industry as a working photographer and give my predictions as to how 2022 will likely pan out. 

23 Fantastic Tips to Make You a Better Wedding Photographer

Wedding photography is a challenging and complex genre that takes a lot of different variables coming together to produce successful work. If you are looking to improve your own work and gain more confidence in your abilities, check out this fantastic video that will give you 23 helpful tips from a seasoned pro.